Wii U update not built in for months to come, Fils-Aime says

Nintendo of America president says online features ready for Christmas rush

Wii U buyers are greeted with a rather large, mandatory firmware update on boot-up if they want to access most of the console's online features, and that won't be changing for the next few months.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Gamasutra that Nintendo's desire "to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers" meant the system was at work until the last possible minute.

The update won't be built into consoles until the patch has been on the market for several months, Fils-Aime said, meaning customers will be installing the 5 GB download at least until early 2013.

He also responded to day-one downtime for the console's Miiverse social network. Nintendo has the majority of its online bumps sorted out, he said, and it expects Miiverse to stay afloat, even when the network is hit hard by new users on Christmas morning.

Fils-Aime further addressed Nintendo TVii, which will launch with Wii U December 8 in Japan, but is still set only for sometime this month in North America and 2013 in Europe. He re-confirmed the launch window and said the service was delayed to meet Nintendo's quality expectations.

"On launch day for us, Nintendo TVii wasn't at a point where we wanted it to be," Fils-Aime said. "It was not the compelling innovative product we wanted it to be and we needed it to be."